Monthly Archives: December 2015

Classification: The Noxious Gas Pokémon
Type: Poison
Description: Noxic form in areas with heavy air pollution, where the various chemicals and toxins mix together to form the Pokémon. If Noxic begin to appear in an area, it is a sign that pollution has gone too far.
Evolves into Hazeard at level 26

Trivia: Noxic was first discovered soon after the industrial revolution. At first people were happy about the discovery of a new Pokémon, not knowing what its creation meant. After the truth was discovered, Noxic began to be considered as vermin.

It’s time for Ash to try to earn his third Tenno Gym Badge in a battle against the Starcore Gym Leader, Neutrina. Ash thinks he’s ready, but Neutrina has him second-guessing himself as she uses strategy after strategy to wear Ash’s Pokémon down.

Also, the Pokédex and Attackdex have been updated with the contents of the episode.

Yeah, that’s right. I just went there. I referenced the most infamous of all episodes, “The Electric Soldier Porygon.” For those of you who don’t know about it, it was an episode that has only aired once in the world, and that was in Japan. A sequence of flashing lights caused by Pikachu using Thunderbolt on a missile caused children around Japan to have seizures. The episode was banned from ever airing again, even in other countries. It was the one and only true appearance of Porygon, presumably because the writers are afraid of it having a bad connotation. Porygon2 and Porygon-Z have yet to appear as well, outside of cameos. Which, if you ask me, is such a shame because the Porygon line is so unique and full of potential.

So this episode was actually meant to be a sequel to the original episode. I was amused by the idea of writing a sequel to an episode that most people haven’t even seen. I actually came up with the concept for this episode years ago when I was making up Pokémon scenarios. I thought if Rotom can go into machinery, it must be able to take over a computer. If it could do that, the only Pokémon that could fight it would be Porygon. I liked the idea so much, that it stuck with me until now.

I used all of the Porygon evolution line, including Mega Porygon-Z, to help drive home the fact that this was a Porygon episode, but also to showcase their unique method of evolution. On the surface it may appear to be just another Pokémon that requires trading with an item to evolve, but there’s actually solid lore behind that evolution. It’s being upgraded. Even my Mega Evolution is just a software patch. By the way, if we count this episode as being Porygon’s premiere appearance, as it has never appeared to English-speaking audiences, this episode would have premiered six Pokémon; the Porygon line, Mega Porygon-Z, Lamp Rotom, and Nucleaction. I can’t say for sure, but I think that might be a record for a non-premiere, non-movie episode.